Beethoven's Theatrical Quartets
Opp. 59, 74 and 95

The first detailed contextual study of Beethoven's middle-period quartets, encompassing reception history, early performance practices, aesthetic contexts and theatrical impetus.

Nancy November (Author)

9781107035454, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 January 2014

295 pages, 9 b/w illus. 1 table 94 music examples
25.3 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.76 kg

'This book catapults the scholarship on the middle-period quartets into the twenty-first century. It is a must-read for Beethoven scholars and should be of significant interest to students of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century music and culture.' Mark Ferraguto, Notes: The Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association

Beethoven's middle-period quartets, Opp. 59, 74 and 95, are pieces that engage deeply with the aesthetic ideas of their time. In the first full contextual study of these works, Nancy November celebrates their uniqueness, exploring their reception history and early performance. In detailed analyses, she explores ways in which the quartets have both reflected and shaped the very idea of chamber music and offers a new historical understanding of the works' physical, visual, social and ideological aspects. In the process, November provides a fresh critique of three key paradigms in current Beethoven studies: the focus on his late period; the emphasis on 'heroic' style in discussions of the middle period; and the idea of string quartets as 'pure', 'autonomous' artworks, cut off from social moorings. Importantly, this study shows that the quartets encompass a new lyric and theatrical impetus, which is an essential part of their unique, explorative character.

Introduction
1. Setting the scene: theories, practices, and the early nineteenth-century string quartet
2. Curtain up: performing the middle-period quartets in Beethoven's time
3. 'Not generally comprehensible': Op. 59 No. 1 and the drama of becoming
4. 'With much feeling': song, sensibility, and rhapsody in Op. 59 No. 2
5. 'Helden-Quartett': genre, innovation, and 'heroic' voices in Op. 59 No. 3
6. Freudvoll und leidvoll: songful impetus and dualistic voice in the 'Harp' Quartet
7. 'The quick-witted brevity of the genuine dramatist': Op. 95 and the idea of the fragment
8. A tale of heroic emancipation? Reception narratives for the middle-period string quartets.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Western "classical" music [AVGC]